While working in Paris in the 1640s the Florentine artist Stefano della Bella created several series of ornament prints, including this group of six etchings. Vase designs offered della Bella the means to showcase his fertile imagination and calligraphic line work. The artist animated the vessels with an array of fanciful motifs, creatures and mythological figures, as well as lush flower arrangements, whose exuberance seems to exceed the confines of the compositions.